Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to communication systems and to techniques for self-synchronization of wireless nodes.
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such multiple-access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks.
A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of mobile entities, such as, for example, user equipments (UEs). A UE may communicate with a base station via the downlink (DL) and uplink (UL). The DL (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base station to the UE, and the UL (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UE to the base station.
Timing synchronization may be an important aspect of wireless network nodes. For example, timing synchronization may provide information to determine a local position of each network node and/or user equipments. In an example, indoor positioning may be desirable. In some systems, satellite-based approaches such as Global Position System (GPS), Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), Galileo, etc. signals may be used for timing synchronization and/or positioning. In some cases, the satellite-based approaches may not be available or may not be desirable. In this context, there remains a need for methods and systems for timing synchronization and/or positioning of network nodes using signaling between the network nodes.